The wine auction was much more interesting in Yue’s eyes. There hasn’t been a catalog for this auction so each item being auctioned was a surprise. Yue had never actually had standard grape wine, he had only ever drank Huangjiu so he was a bit curious but he was also worried that he wouldn't like it so he hoped that they'd have some different options for him.

Huy and Mai were in the same balcony as Yue and Viktor this time but they had their own bid paddle while Yue and Viktor just signaled the maid when they wanted to bid. Viktor and Huy had already bought a few bottles when a jar with Chinese writing was shown as the next item and Yue immediately recognized it.

“This next item is a special rice wine from China! It is a true luxury from eastern China and is hailed as the best rice wine in the world!” The auctioneer announced. Yue grabbed Viktor’s hand and made Viktor look at him.

“It’s from my hometown…” Yue said and gave his best puppy eyes.

“Really?” Viktor asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, really,” Yue said and batted his eyelashes a little. Viktor rolled his eyes playfully and gave the maid the signal to bid. 

“You don’t have to beg or give a reason, I would’ve bid if you just asked me to normally.” Viktor chuckled and intertwined his fingers with Yue’s as they held hands.

Huy and Mai would’ve bid but it was kind of pointless to bid if Viktor was also bidding since he practically had endless money. The next wine up for auction was also another rice wine and while Yue also recalled that brand of wine being very good he didn’t want to ask Viktor to bid again after he spent so much on the other rice wine. Huy and Mai actually made their bid on the wine and managed to win without spending too much money. The wine wasn’t as dry as the one that Viktor had bid for so fewer people were interested.

“Should we drink together after this?” Mai whispered to Yue while Huy and Viktor were listening carefully to the last wine being auctioned.

Yue nodded quickly in response. He enjoyed drinking, he had practically tried wine in every town and city in China because of his constant travels. He and Fei Xiang would drink together often since Lian Bai and Guiren couldn’t hold their alcohol and Fei Xiang could drink jar after jar without feeling a thing because he had an immunity to poisons and alcohol was counted as one.

“How much can you drink?” Yue asked, nudging Mai a bit.

“A couple of cups.” Mai murmured and Yue was now wondering if it was ladylike of him to say that he could drink half a jar by himself. When the auction ended Yue and Mai relayed their plan to drink together to Viktor and Huy who agreed.

“Have someone send the items Mai and Mr. Pham bought to this address,” Viktor said to the maid and handed her a paper where Mai had written down the hotel she and Huy were staying with her parents.

“Except for the Huangjiu,” Mai added and smiled as she noted that Yue and Viktor hadn’t stopped holding hands. She would’ve mentioned it but Yue’s bright red cheeks assured her that he was well aware. Despite how embarrassed Yue was, neither of them let go until Viktor and Huy stayed behind to wait for Yue and Mai to enter the carriage first.

They went on their way to the Ivanov manor soon afterward. Once they arrived at the manor Yue could tell that Mai and Huy were thinking the same thing he had been thinking the first time he saw the manor. The unnecessarily large manor was baffling even to those who were from rich families.

“This is bigger than a cultivation sect…” Huy murmured.

“I thought so too…” Yue murmured and laughed as the 4 of them walked inside.

“The main house is even bigger.” Viktor laughed and led them to a room where they could relax and drink. 

Some maids brought over the two jars of Huangjiu and some ceramic cups. They carefully poured some of the Huangjiu that Viktor and Yue had bought into the cups first before most of them left. One of the maids stayed in the room with them to pour Huangjiu for them when necessary. She was silent and Viktor just told everyone to ignore her presence and relax as they drank.

“Is this actually from your hometown or were you lying?” Viktor asked and looked over the Chinese writings on the jar of Huangjiu.

Yue was about to say yes but he then remembered that the Xia family’s main house was based in Shanghai and that Huy would definitely know that. The town actually hasn’t his hometown regardless, he only lived there for 5 years and he was certain he wasn't bord there. The only thing he knew about the place he was born was that it was in the east and most likely a forest rather than a city since there were no records of his birth and people from the town he was abandoned in said he was the child of traveling peddlers.

“It's not my hometown, it’s just a place I live in for a long time...It’s a small port town and it’s rather old fashioned but they sell this Huangjiu in one of the inns so it’s rather popular.” Yue explained and started to drink. He remembered when he went back to the town after growing up and ordered some of the Huangjiu from the inn and giggled. He remembered how Lian Bai had accompanied him and immediately got drunk after only taking a sip so he had to continuously explain that he wasn't a creepy person trying to kidnap her.

They talked and drank for a while.  Yue finished his wine very quickly so he was a couple of cups ahead of everyone else but he wasn't very drunk. In reality, Viktor was the least tipsy one there, Yue's face was flushed red and although he didn't show it he was already starting to feel a little hot.

“How’d you meet Anh?” Mai asked Yue, switching to Vietnamese halfway through her sentence, she was already very tipsy.

“My older brother and I were visiting a cultivation sect 6 years ago and we briefly met there,” Yue explained, noting that Mai who was sitting on the sofa opposite to lean towards Huy as she got tipsy.

He looked at the 3 people who were joining him in drinking and giggled a bit. Viktor didn’t look like he was affected but Huy and Mai were both flushed red, although Huy didn’t seem too tipsy.

They drank for a while longer with Huy quietly using magic to move more than half of what Mai had in her cup into his own cup since she was getting very drunk very quickly.

“Yue...Call me...what’s the word in Chinese….Jie! Call me Jie!” Mai said and went over to sit between Yue and Viktor. She childishly nudged and hugged Yue.

Viktor looked slightly annoyed that Mai got between them but Mai and Yue didn’t even notice.

Yue chuckled and decided to comply to Mai’s demands since she was very drunk.

“Jie Jie, you’re really drunk off 4 cups? I’m on my 8th cup.” Yue teased and pet Mai’s hair with a laugh.

“Eh? I’m not drunk! And I've drank 6!” Mai whined.

 

“Yes, you are. You haven’t even realized that Huy has been making you drink less and less.” Yue laughed as he finished his 8th cup of Huangjiu.

“Eh?!” Mai exclaimed and went over to Huy to whine to him in Vietnamese.

They opened the next jar of Huangjiu and Huy was starting to feel a little tipsy and Mai was focusing on his cup to keep Huy from stealing it while she wasn’t looking. Viktor was starting to really feel the alcohol, he loosened his tie and coughed a bit. Yue was beginning to get quite drunk as well although it didn’t show much. He had drunk more than anyone else in the group so it only made sense.

“Are you finally feeling drunk, Viktor?” Huy chuckled as he watched Viktor’s elegant facade finally start to crumble as he got tipsy.

“Just a little.” Viktor murmured and turned to Yue who was spacing out with a  giddy little smile on his face, his drunk thoughts amusing him.

Viktor was going to bring Yue back to reality by touching his shoulder but Yuesnapped out of his daydream when Mai suddenly fell asleep and dropped onto Huy’s shoulder. Yue giggled a little as he watched Huy’s surprised look.

“I guess that’s our cue to stop drinking.” Huy murmured and checked his pocket watch to see the time. He held Mai's head so she wouldn't slip off his shoulder and sighed helplessly.

“Guest rooms are already set up.” The maid in the room said to Viktor who had glanced at her.

“Ah...I guess We’ll be troubling you then.” Huy said and finished his cup before standing and lifting Mai into his arms. The maid stood and went to guide them to the guest rooms that were set up for them so just Yue and Viktor were left in the room. 

Yue was still being giggly as he drank more of the Huangjiu. He finished another cup before Viktor decided to say something.

“Do you not think it’s time for you to stop too?” Viktor asked and chuckled as he looked at Yue’s red face.

“I’m not drunk though,” Yue said and tilted his head and scooted closer to Viktor so their elbows were touching. That was something he would've never done had he been sober.

“...Sure but It’s almost 10.” Viktor said and decided to play along with Yue’s drunken words.

“And?” Yue asked and took Viktor’s hand and intertwined their fingers as he carefully inspected the cuff links on Viktor’s shirt. They were simple cufflinks but Yue's drunken mind found them fascinating and liked the feeling of Viktor holding his hand.

“It’s late.” Viktor murmured and stared at their intertwined fingers with a smile. Yue let go of Viktor's hand and looked up at him. He stared fr a while and then reached toward his ear, completely ignoring his words.

“You have a piercing,” Yue said and touched a small silver earring on the cartilage of Viktor’s ear.

“You didn’t notice before?” Viktor asked and noticed that Yue was getting closer and closer to look at the earring. He was starting to wonder if Yue’s drunken self was doing this to him on purpose. He was glad he hadn't tried to match Yue's drinking habits or else the situation would've turned out very different the second that Yue held his hand.

Yue noticed that Viktor also had his ear lobes pierced as well but he didn’t see any other earrings besides the silver one on his cartilage. He turned Viktor’s face and looked at his other ear to see if it was the same. He wasn't even paying attention to the way that he was sitting and how close he was to Viktor. He saw that Viktor wasn't wearing any earrings on his other ear and felt slightly disappointed since he wanted to see how he'd look with multiple earrings on but his attention quickly switched to Viktor's hair.

“Yue…” Viktor murmured, a little flustered since Yue was practically on his lap. He was also flustered by how Yue was running his fingers through his hair, the mana running through his strands of hair made the sensation feel a bit more sensual than necessary. Everything that Yue was doing was just making it harder and harder for him to not give in to the indecent ideas filling his head.

“Hmm?” Yue hummed and actually looked at Viktor’s face. Viktor didn’t say anything, hoping Yue would see what was wrong with the picture just by looking at their positions but Yue just stared at his face for a while before dipping down and kissing his lips.

Viktor completely froze and didn't know how to react. He almost let himself go but he knew Yue was drunk and would probably regret it. He also didn’t want to cause Yue too much emotional distress since as far as Yue knew he wasn’t aware that he wasn’t a woman.

He did indulge in the kiss and let it continue until he felt the presence of the maid who had been walking Huy and Mai to the guest rooms appear down the hall. He pulled away, trying not to show how his patience was being tested by Yue’s small whine.

"I wanted to kiss more..." Yue whined and tried to press his lips to Viktor's again but was stopped by Viktor's hand covering his mouth.

“You might cry when you remember this...” Viktor murmured with a helpless expression. He was completely unaware that the make up on Yue’s lips had rubbed off onto his lips so he didn't understand why the maid that had walked into the room looked so surprised. He paid her no mind and lifted Yue into his arms and started walking to Yue’s room to drop him off there while Yue continued to whine.

Yue noticed that he was being carried to his bedroom and stopped whining. He instead turned a little red, slightly shy even though he was drunk.

“How indecent.” Yue giggled as they entered his bedroom. Viktor inhaled slowly to keep his composure as Yue's drunken self was testing his patience.

"It's not indecent at all, I'm going to leave the room right after I put you down," Viktor said and opened the door with magic. Despite what seemed to be frustration in his voice he couldn't stop himself from smiling as he spoke.

"Noooo!" Yue whined and kept a tight grip on Viktor's shoulders to keep him from letting go. Viktor started to wonder if he should just knock Yue out to keep his sanity but luckily the head maid knocked on the door and holding a mask and one of the candles that caused people to fall asleep. 

She was going to hand Viktor the mask but Viktor just shook his head and sent a tiny flame to the candle and used a mana layer to keep himself from feeling the effects of the candle. Yue hadn't been paying attention until he felt the change in Viktor's mana but his drunken self couldn't stop the effects of the candle and he quickly went limp in Viktor's arms.

Viktor snuffed the candle and laid Yue down on the bed. 

"Change her clothes and turn on the lights in the training area," Viktor said to the maid before leaving the room. He definitely "couldn't sleep" after that and had to blow off some steam by training.